Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Arkansas ranks 11th in tax burden on poor

Arkansas ranks eleventh in the nation when it comes to taxing the poor. The poorest Arkansans, those making under $9,600 per year, pay two times more in taxes as a percentage of their income than wealthy Arkansans who make over $209,800 per year.

A new study released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) puts Arkansas among the most unfair tax systems in the country. According to the study, Arkansas’s tax system is unfair, or regressive, because the lower someone’s income, the higher their tax rate. This is in part because Arkansas, like most other states, relies more heavily on sales taxes to raise revenue and relies less on personal income taxes, which tend to be more progressive.